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Application of forensic anthropology
The importance of forensic anthropology
Application of forensic anthropology
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Bones, bones, bones!
It’s not everyday that you find some bones in the ground while walking your dog! As a forensic anthropologist who has just found some human remains lying around I would definitely decipher the biological profile, reconstruct the face, and testify in court to identify the unknown person. The job of a forensic anthropologist isn’t always easy, but by using these three steps, it shouldn’t be that tedious and hard.
Determining the Biological Profile : Step 1
Initially, I would determine the biological profile. By figuring out the victim’s biological profile I would find out the sex, age, height, and race. According to Jerry Melbye in the article,“What is Forensic Anthropology?” by R.U. Steinberg forensic anthropologists
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determine their height by measuring long bones and applying statistical formula. After they ask the race of the victim. That is very complicated, but they generally get an idea within a race of two. (Steinberg, Pg. 1) In addition, I would work on Antemortem pathology. Antemortem means before death, so this helps if the victim had any marks left on their bones before their demise. According to the article, “What is Forensic Anthropology?” by R.U. Steinberg Antemortem pathology can be used to identify the victim if the person had a disease that left marks on a bone or they had a fracture during their life. (Steinberg, Pg. 1) Following Antemortem, I would establish positive identification which means I have to meet with a forensic odontologist to match dental records. Almost everyone has been to the dentist and has had X-rays taken, so this is the most common way to establish positive identification, considering not everyone has had hospital X-rays taken. According to the article, “What is Forensic Anthropology?” by R.U. Steinberg the simple rule with this is something before death has to match something after death. (Steinberg, Pg.1) After positive identification comes Perimortem pathology. Perimortem pathology is when forensic anthropologists look at the fine details of bones, such as marks that resulted from knife cuts. Referring to the article, “What is Forensic Anthropology?” by R.U. Steinberg forensic anthropologists are getting into the field of electron microscopy, which allows them to look at details like whether certain cut marks may be related to one knife or another. (Steinberg, Pg. 2) Facial Reconstruction : Step 2 Secondly, I would work on reconstructing the face with a forensic artist. The very first things the artist would do when reconstructing a face would be to clean the bones and create a cast. The rubbery substance used when creating a cast is similar to the material used when you get an impression done at the dentist’s. According to the article, “Excerpt from Giving Faces to the Lost : “Facial Reconstruction” ” by Angel Libal after the alginate has hardened, the skull is removed, and the impression left in the alginate is filled with plaster or a special type of plastic. (Libal, Pg.1) Furthermore, the next thing to do would be the start building the face. In order to build the face about twenty- one to thirty-six wooden pegs would need to be placed and glued to show the difference in flesh thickness. Referring to the same Facial Reconstruction article by Angel Libal, “The artist uses a chart based on the victim’s age, sex, and race to find averages for flesh thickness.” (Libal, Pg. 2) Following this, the face sculpting begins. To determine eye color the forensic artist would have to guess. The Facial Reconstruction article by Angel Libal stated, “ Artists guess eye color based on common types for the victim’s racial group and region.” (Libal, Pg.2) After all is said and done, finishing touches like a wig or beard gets added and depending on the victims are textured is also added to the “skin”. Testify in Court : Step 3 Finally, the very last step in this would be to testify in court about who the person is, the injuries that were present, and any other evidence such the time of death.
The first topic I would talk about in court would be who the person was. When identifying who the person was I would include basically everything in their biological profile, ranging from their name to their race and height. According to the article, “When Forensic Anthropology Meets DNA” by Charmaine Lewis CODIS the national DNA library is a way to determine who an unknown victim is if they’ve entered their DNA into the system. (Lewis, Pg.2) There’s a slim to none chance that they have, but if they have it can be very accurate. Another topic I would bring up is if any injures or marks that were evident when the bones were discovered. I would go over anything I found while establishing Perimortem pathology. Something that’s important to mention is if any knife cuts or nicks from bullets were present. Referring back to the, “What is Forensic Anthropology?” article by R.U. Steinberg Perimortem pathology is dealing with blunt-force trauma, sharp-force trauma -- saw, axe, knife -- and ballistics. (Steinberg, Pg. 2) This would bring me to discussing if a murder occurred or if they died from a natural cause. Last but not least, I would finish off by telling the judge about any other necessary information such as the time of death. To interpret the time of death a method that forensic anthropologist Bill Bass uses is to study the life cycle of maggots, if there is a body of course. The article, ”Dead man Talking: Solving Crime Through Science,” by David Kohn stated that photographs showed Bass that the maggots were further along in their life cycle and had been in the body for at least 14 days. (Kohn, Pg.
3) Case Closed To sum up everything, to determine who the unknown person using their human remains I would initially figure out their biological profile, reconstruct the face, and lastly testify in court about their identity.
Forensic Science Introduction: Someone in a restaurant has suddenly fallen ill and a mystery powder has been discovered with the victim. As the chief investigator, your duty is to identify the mystery substance through a lab. In this lab, it will consist of five known compounds and one unknown compound. Your job is to distinguish which one out of the five substances is the mystery powder. To figure out the mystery matter you will have to compare their physical and chemical properties and match them with the appropriate compound.
“This is my lab and what we do is study bones,” states Kari Bruwelheide in her video entitled “30,000 Skeletons”. Of the three resources that we were provided, “Puzzles of the Chesapeake” by Sally Walker, “Forensic Anthropology” by an unknown author, and “30,000 Skeletons” by Smithsonian Education presented by Kari Bruwelheide, the resource “30,000 Skeletons” is by far the best at explaining the role of an anthropologist. It is unbeatable because it is a video rather than just written words, and Kari Bruwelheide has personal experience in being a forensic anthropologist. A forensic anthropologist is a scientist that studies human remains, or in another word, skeletons, to try to find out information about the past.
Since the airing of the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and the other televised series that followed have led jurors to compare fiction with reality. The shows have changed the view on the real world of forensic science as the series have a world of forensic science of their own. For this paper the televised series titled Bones by forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs will be used as an example for comparison. In the series Bones Dr. Temperance Brenan arrives at the scene of the crime to examine the skeletal remains found in the scene of the crime equipped with one or more forensic kits. Upon momentarily examining the skeletal remains Dr. Brenan is able to determine the gender, ethnicity, and age. When this type of scenario is compared to nonfictional
In the book “Death's Acre”, By Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson they tell readers how they got to where they are today in their careers and how Dr. Bill Bass became famous for the well known “Body Farm” at the University of Tennessee. In “Deaths Acre” Bass invites people across the world who are reading to go behind the gates of the body farm where he revolutionized forensic anthropology. Bass takes us on a journey on how he went from not knowing if this is what he wanted to do for a living to being in a career that he would never trade. He tells us about the Lindbergh kidnapping and murder, explored the headless corpse of a person whose identity shocked many people included the police, divulges how the telltale traces and case
In conclusion, a trained forensic anthropologist is an important factor to consider when the trauma on the bone occurred, how it occurred and what type it is. With no longer having the flesh on the body, it can make finding cause of death difficult, which is why the forensic anthropologist is
One of the major task that needs to be taken care of before anything could proceed was to get a consent from the family of the individuals that were missing or had been considered dead. Since in some of the cultures it is considered very disrespectful to dig up the burial ground even if it is to find out the truth about what had happened. When and if the bodies are found the anthropologists try to the best of their ability to be careful and respectful of the remains that they found.
The portrayal of forensic anthropology in ‘The feet on the beach’ is inaccurate because forensic anthropologists are depicted to be involved in other aspects of the crime scene investigation aside from aspects that require anthropological expertise (Wood, 2017a). Similar to Dr. Brennan who is a forensic anthropologist in the show, forensic anthropologists in real life works closely with the police and the coroner when the remains being dealt with are unrecognizable (Wood,
Crime is a common public issue for people living in the inner city, but is not limited to only urban or highly populated cities as it can undoubtedly happen in small community and rural areas as well. In The Real CSI, the documentary exemplified many way in which experts used forensic science as evidence in trial cases to argue and to prove whether a person is innocent or guilty. In this paper, I explained the difference in fingerprinting technology depicted between television shows and in reality, how DNA technology change the way forensics evidence is used in the court proceedings, and how forensic evidence can be misused in the United States adversarial legal system.
results of the forensic anthropology. For instance, if a crime is committed at a certain scene,
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...he case of forensics. You can go beyond the normal reality of blood spatter (?.. how does or where did blood spatter come into play here). The species of a set of bones can be determined through forensics anthropology. The sex of a skeleton. The age of a person and by studying the bones you can find a person’s age. Forensics Anthropology, (2014)
Forensic scientists work in labs where they examine, identify, and interpret evidence collected in crime scenes. Crime scene investigators collect evidence and pass it to a forensic scientist who uses the items in numerous ways to help catch criminals. Forensic scientists must also record the evidence and any tests ran on it in detail to prove the truth in court. A forensic scientist also has to be able to present his or her physical evidence verbally in court, so a strong communication background is important.
The next step that police do once viewing the crime scene is to look at the evidence recovered from the scene and use victimology to try to decrease the number of suspects. They look for evidence that shows what weapon was used, how the crime was committed, DNA, or anything specific about the victim that could help in the
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This is where the crime scene unit (CSU) comes in to play as well as the detectives. Once the detectives arrive on the scene they will be looking for a suspicious individual or individuals and speak to witnesses and take their testimonials or story, they basically tell the investigator what they observed. On a crime scene investigation packet it states "when seeking for witnesses and taking their testimonials it is best to separate them so no individuals have identical stories." Once this has been done and the investigator takes the testimonials they must determine if a crime took place. For example if a person was stabbed in the abdomen and first responders arrived and trying to help the victim and he dies then the crime that took place was a aggravated battery but turned into a homicide. If a person was sexually molested and beaten while being molested then the crime that occurred is a sexual battery and rape. Once this is completed then the investigator will determine the nature of the crime. What this means is that if it is a violent crime, a website